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| From left to right: Lindsay Hagmann, Abbie Jones, Star Rosales, and Lauren Cuda enjoy the last few practices. (Photo by Kim Jones) |
By David Smith
Today, four Trinity female swimmers left for Indianapolis, Indiana to compete in the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships, which starts tomorrow.
Seniors Lindsay Hagmann and Lauren Cuda, and sophomores Abbie Jones and Star Rosales, will swim in the 4x50-yard freestyle, 4x100-yard freestyle, and 4x200-yard freestyle relays. For the first time in three years, Trinity Women’s Swimming team qualified three relays to compete at the national championship meet.
“Oh, man! It’s just crazy because this is going to be my first time ever swimming the 200,” said Rosales. “I’ll be swimming at Nationals where everyone is speedy fast, and so we’ll see.”
Seniors Hagmann, an accounting major, and Cuda, a biology major, were on the relay team qualified for the Nationals three years ago, when they were freshmen. They missed qualifying for the semi-finals heat by .08 seconds. This year, they made their way back to the Nationals, and they are excited by the idea that the training and hard work they have endeavored may pay off for a better finish.
“There’s some really fast girls out there, so I’m not going to be disappointed if I don’t get first place. Ultimately though, that’d be really awesome,” said Hagmann. She is now on her way to the Nationals for the fourth time in her four years at Trinity. Having sustained a back injury at the 2017 Conference has not slowed her down. Aside from the relays, Hagmann will also swim the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle individual events in Indianapolis.
This meet will conclude the seniors’ swimming career at Trinity, but that hasn’t hindered the girls from bonding and supporting each other throughout the season. The experience and guidance from the seniors have carried significant weight with the two sophomores.
“I’ve definitely felt better in the water leading up to this than I did before conference. I feel like there’s almost less pressure, less stress, like now we’ve made it. Just do what you can do,” said Jones, who is a sophomore engendering major.
Being all sprint freestylers, the four women swim together everyday. “We all mesh well,” said sophomore Rosales. “We’re used to swimming with each other and know how we’re going to come into the wall, how fast we’re going to go out.”
Scott Trompeter, the swimming team’s new head coach, also acknowledged the important role played by the seniors. “As a senior class they did a really good job leading the team, trying to help us point the team in a really focused direction.”
In previous years, only a handful of Trinity swimmers qualified for Nationals in individual events.
“We were on the bubble for all of our invites. It’s good to have a group because in the past few years it’s just been Lindsay and another guy. Now we have girls who can train together,” said Trompeter. “They do a good job of supporting each other and keeping each other centered.”
Other members of the coaching team echoed the point. “From the perspective of 26 years of watching I thought that the team just did a top notch job this year by way of their attitude, their interest in doing well, their willingness to work hard. They’ve paid the price,” said John Ryan, one of the assistant coaches. “They’re good athletes and they’ve earned the right to go. There’s a lot of good athletes out there and a lot of good swimming.”
Now that they are qualified, the next goal is to make it to the finals heat: swimming top eight at the preliminaries.
“I feel really excited,” said Rosales. “I think the relay will go really fast and I feel we worked hard this semester, year, and season.”
“It’ll be fun,” said senior Cuda.
Today, four Trinity female swimmers left for Indianapolis, Indiana to compete in the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships, which starts tomorrow.
Seniors Lindsay Hagmann and Lauren Cuda, and sophomores Abbie Jones and Star Rosales, will swim in the 4x50-yard freestyle, 4x100-yard freestyle, and 4x200-yard freestyle relays. For the first time in three years, Trinity Women’s Swimming team qualified three relays to compete at the national championship meet.
“Oh, man! It’s just crazy because this is going to be my first time ever swimming the 200,” said Rosales. “I’ll be swimming at Nationals where everyone is speedy fast, and so we’ll see.”
Seniors Hagmann, an accounting major, and Cuda, a biology major, were on the relay team qualified for the Nationals three years ago, when they were freshmen. They missed qualifying for the semi-finals heat by .08 seconds. This year, they made their way back to the Nationals, and they are excited by the idea that the training and hard work they have endeavored may pay off for a better finish.
“There’s some really fast girls out there, so I’m not going to be disappointed if I don’t get first place. Ultimately though, that’d be really awesome,” said Hagmann. She is now on her way to the Nationals for the fourth time in her four years at Trinity. Having sustained a back injury at the 2017 Conference has not slowed her down. Aside from the relays, Hagmann will also swim the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle individual events in Indianapolis.
This meet will conclude the seniors’ swimming career at Trinity, but that hasn’t hindered the girls from bonding and supporting each other throughout the season. The experience and guidance from the seniors have carried significant weight with the two sophomores.
“I’ve definitely felt better in the water leading up to this than I did before conference. I feel like there’s almost less pressure, less stress, like now we’ve made it. Just do what you can do,” said Jones, who is a sophomore engendering major.
Being all sprint freestylers, the four women swim together everyday. “We all mesh well,” said sophomore Rosales. “We’re used to swimming with each other and know how we’re going to come into the wall, how fast we’re going to go out.”
Scott Trompeter, the swimming team’s new head coach, also acknowledged the important role played by the seniors. “As a senior class they did a really good job leading the team, trying to help us point the team in a really focused direction.”
In previous years, only a handful of Trinity swimmers qualified for Nationals in individual events.
“We were on the bubble for all of our invites. It’s good to have a group because in the past few years it’s just been Lindsay and another guy. Now we have girls who can train together,” said Trompeter. “They do a good job of supporting each other and keeping each other centered.”
Other members of the coaching team echoed the point. “From the perspective of 26 years of watching I thought that the team just did a top notch job this year by way of their attitude, their interest in doing well, their willingness to work hard. They’ve paid the price,” said John Ryan, one of the assistant coaches. “They’re good athletes and they’ve earned the right to go. There’s a lot of good athletes out there and a lot of good swimming.”
Now that they are qualified, the next goal is to make it to the finals heat: swimming top eight at the preliminaries.
“I feel really excited,” said Rosales. “I think the relay will go really fast and I feel we worked hard this semester, year, and season.”
“It’ll be fun,” said senior Cuda.
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